Books - Stand Out Stand Alones

I've been reading.

Not so much while on the bike ... but in bed. 

Or audio ... while driving, cleaning, doing dishes, folding laundry, mowing the lawn and watching the boy's  basketball games. I love being able to accomplish two things at once and I'm getting TONS of reading in.  Here are a couple of my recent reads ...

Both of the above books I experienced in audio format. Both are a little more "adult" (older characters and explicit content). I rated both four stars ... I ended up liking them more than I thought I would when I started, they made a memorable impact on me, yet I'd be hesitant to recommend them to family or friends. Both were just random picks from immediately available books at my library. I knew nothing about either going in. Both of these are also stand-alone stories, which seems a bit of a rarity in the book world today (so many series out there now). When I was younger, I ADORED finding a good series ... knowing automatically what was next on my reading list. But now, with so many books waiting in my Kindle Cloud and library loan list, sometimes I'm less willing to commit, or I have several series going and just need a single book to bridge the gap while I wait. 

... and while I'm wonderful at updating my GoodReads account, rating and writing reviews as I come to the end a story, I'm NOT nearly as good at keeping up with book posts here on the blog. I often feel like I need to finish a series before I blog, or I like to wait and combine several similar themed publications together. As mentioned above, these two books had several things in common, so, that's enough of a connection, and it's time ...

ALL THIS LIFE by Joshua Mohr. This ended up reminding me of the movie "Crash" (which really hit me) with a wide cast of characters. We are introduced to everyone, and slowly the stories unfold and begin to intertwine until there is the ultimate ending as everything (and almost everyone) comes together. Crash. As the "loading" sign on the cover indicates, this book delves into our obsession with online activity and the impact it can have on ourselves and others. I must admit, at the beginning of the book, I wasn't sold on the story. I had to push through a bit as I tried to remember the cast of characters and start to care about them (many are not very likeable at all). In the end though, I was uber anxious and almost in tears. Crash.

THE SERIALIST by David Gordon. This book is ... unique. Harry Bloch, the central character is an author, writing several different serials under a variety of pseudonyms. In addition to his story in this book, we, the reader, get peeks at his stories, his writing ... and it is SO bad! Just over the top, practically porn. I think the writer (David Gordon) is amazing at writing so badly. I just had to laugh out loud so many times when the chapters would randomly switch to one of his  (Harry's) stories. The underlying mystery here was interesting and had some twists and turns I wasn't expecting, and  Harry's real (in this book) life was "stranger than fiction" indeed.  And a complete hats off to the narrator here ... Bronson Pinchot. He was amazing with accents and inflections and I know I enjoyed this story much more because of his audio. My imagination would not have added quite so much. 

So as mentioned above, both of these have some rather explicit content (proFanity, sexual situations), but if that's something that doesn't bother you (or you're actively looking for *Ü*) and either of these are up your alley ... check them out and let me know what YOU think of them.